Books: New book states case for passenger trains as 21st-century transportation | rgj.com | The Reno Gazette-Journal

In “Waiting on a Train: The Embattled Future of Passenger Rail Service,” Chelsea Green Publishing, $17.95 paperback) James McCommons states a case for passenger trains as a key player in 21st-century transportation policy, but he also describes the massive financial costs that such a future would require. He examines the ambivalence to such a future of many railroad and government officials, and the attitudes of the American travelling and commuting public.”The talk is in the next 30 to 40 years we’ll need to double the size of the interstate highway system and build new airports,” said McCommons, who spent much of 2008 riding Amtrak and other passenger trains around the country, gathering background on the future of passenger trains, freight railroads and partnerships among government entities, Amtrak and railroad companies.